Padfoot
by opheliewrites
Summary: A dog shows up at the door of Grimmauld Place. (For the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round One. Thank you to all who reviewed!)


**I chose to write in a very simple style...**

**The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition  
**

**Round One**

**Prompt: Family Role - Pet **

* * *

**Padfoot**

And there he was. The small and very thin boy stepped through the door and tried to speed through the kitchen, but the miss ginger stopped him in his path. Harry's eyes were still somewhat red through his glasses (he was, however, unaware of this), so you could tell he'd been crying. Mrs. Weasley dropped her hand from his shoulder and looked down. She hated to see him so depressed. He nodded sort of hurriedly and paced through the next door to go and find Ron. He was in luck more or less, depending on how you look at it, when he bumped into Ron on his way to.

"Hello, Harry," Ron said softly.

"Hi, Ron,"

They chattered quietly in the sitting room of 12 Grimmauld Place while Molly prepared dinner. She allowed her mind to wander and it did; She always found it wound up in the most peculiar places when she let it run free, but this was a different case. Her imagination ended up exactly where she knew it would, on the subject of Sirius. It was so sudden, his passing away, and she couldn't bear to think of it. She'd come to find that he was wasn't an annoyance at all, really; though she had, yes, always cared for the "criminal", and even acknowledged this while he was still breathing, Molly had never really realized just how much. She'd thought of him as a pest, yes, but one she was truly quite fond of, though now she saw that he wasn't a pest at all. Look at everything he'd done, for the Lord's sake. Sirius had found a headquarters for the Order, been a great friend and even father figure to Harry… Harry, who was a wreck. She sighed. Molly heard a scratching at her door (well, technically it was Sirius's door, or Harry's, now, but no one pays any attention to technicality) and went to peek and see what the source of the scraping was. To her surprise, she saw a large black dog staring at her. It looked remarkably like Sirius when he was in his animagus form. She grinned a little and looked intently at the dog.

"Hey, Mum, what's with all the ruckus?" asked Ron, referring to the very audible scratching, as he strutted into the foyer closely followed by Harry.

"Oh, nothing…"

Harry and Ronald both turned their heads towards the dog and stared at it, Harry more raptly than Ron. The redhead cracked a smile meanwhile the green eyed young man just tilted his head, looking somewhat bemused and definitely blue.

"What is that?" Harry asked lightly, gesturing towards the hound.

"He just showed up here," replied Mrs. Weasley, offering a warm smile.

Harry nodded. He seemed rather focused on the tapestry on the wall now. Sirius was on his mind, of course, and he hated it. He hated thinking about how Sirius died, how he fell through the veil, how Remus had held him back, what he could've done to save him; _It really is all my fault,_ Harry had been thinking ever since the tragic incident. He was angry at himself, and, obviously, Bellatrix and Voldemort. He felt a bit alone, too, and he couldn't stand it.

The twins walked through the entry to where the boys and woman were and went to look at the dog through the small window at the top of the door.

"Mum! Can we let him in? He looks cold," Said Fred.

"Dogs don't get cold," George said, contradicting his brother, "He looks… Lonely. Let him in."

"He could be dirty!" Molly countered with, "Or infected or something!"

"Cast a few precautionary spells, he'll be fine!"

She shook her head. _"No,_ boys, we – I – don't need or quite frankly _want _a giant dog in the –"

"MUM! Let it in, it could be injured!" Ginny shouted as she stalked down the steps after hearing what had been going on. _Her and all those beasts, _Molly mused. And yet, she sighed and relented. They opened the door and let the cur stroll in through the door. It's fluffy coat had been more matted than they'd stopped to notice and, like Ginny said, the creature was injured. A (small albeit) patch of fur was missing, and it looked red and sore where you could see the skin. The youngest orange haired lady in the room immediately scooped up the dog and laid it on the counter (despite protests – _That's where you eat!_)

"Heal him!" Ginny half begged, half screamed at her mother. You could easily tell she was panicking for the dog and it's well being. "Please?"

Mrs. Weasley went to work and performed some simple healing spells on the mutt.

"He's _fine _now, so you can relax, Ginny."

* * *

Molly wandered into the bathroom shortly after the dog situation that same night to find Ginny bathing the large furball in the sink (which looked ridiculous because, as aforementioned, the dog was _large). _

Ginevra laughed as the hound splashed her with soapy water from the basin, which dampened her hair and got on her clothes, but she didn't seem care at all. It really was strange, Molly thought as she watched Ginny play with the dog, how much it looked like Sirius. She figured it was some kind of good omen or other from Sirius passed away that maybe things would be okay for awhile. The girl giving "Sirius reincarnated" a bath seemed to finally notice her mother standing in the door.

"Can I help you, Mummy?" She said, cocking her head slightly to the side like she always did when asking questions.

"No, that's alright for now. Sorry."

* * *

Nearly all the children with those signature ginger tresses sat in the sitting room in comfortable chairs or curled up on couches, plus one particular Boy Who Lives. The dog jumped up onto Molly's lap and barked, making it's self comfortable. She ran a hand through it's now clean and still slightly wet fur... And then she started to cry. It was unexpected, as not even she knew she'd start crying, but it was inevitable, she supposed, as she still hadn't yet and we all must lament sometimes, but what an awful moment for it to happen. It was sort of at random, and she wished it weren't in front of her family and Harry – Or really, just her family, because Harry was as good as. Her heart could not cease hammering and go back to its usual pace. Molly's mind was slow and really hardly working at all. It was her feeling doing this all by itself and she was shocked it hadn't yet exploded because of how hard it was working against her ribcage. Harry came up behind her and patted her even awkwardly, but sometime following just gave her a hug and tried to reassure her. The cries died down and, she said sharply, "alright, then" and quickly apologized, but Harry quickly hushed her.

"There's nothing to be sorry for at all."

Ron followed suit with,

"Agreed. You know, one of the word things in life is seeing you mum cry. I'm sorry." He said, eying either of the two who'd been over by the large armchair in the last five minutes.

Murmurs of agreement were were heard from the other Weasley children.

* * *

_Years Later_

_Little Lily Luna practically skipped home. She didn't, however, know she was being followed by a small, black, ragged dog that looked just like the one the golden trio and everyone else had met so many years before. She bobbed her head along to some sort of tune and opened the door. _

_"Lily! You're home. What's... What's that?" Al asked, pointing at the puppy. _

_"What's what?" She replied, but turned and noticed the dog. "Oh, look at him! He's so cute!"  
_

_Lily picked him up and carried him inside. Harry sat at the kitchen table reading a copy of _The Prophet_, oblivious to the little girl who was now back, safe inside, as well as the dog. _

_"Look, Daddy! Look what I found!" She held the dog up in the air. _

_He stared at it for a few moments and smiled. _

_"Its name is Fluffy," she declared. _

_"Fluffy? That's a sissy name!" Albus said back. "Let's call him Dragon." _

_James walked in through the door and, of course, noticed the small ball of fluff being held in the air (because who doesn't notice a floating dog in their kitchen?) He snatched it from the hands of the fair haired Lily and held it up to his face.  
_

_"Hey, Padfoot," he grinned. _


End file.
